Patients are dying because their doctors are failing to detect that they have cancer, the Government's leading expert on the disease has warned.

"Professor Mike Richards, the national cancer director at the Department of Health, claimed that incorrect diagnoses had become "a significant concern".

He said: "Ultimately, it can mean that the cancer has progressed to a stage where it can't be cured."

He added that failed diagnoses also meant that when the disease was eventually spotted, the only available treatments were particularly aggressive, such as chemotherapy or surgery.

"That could mean a mastectomy, rather than perhaps a breast conserving operation," he said.

The Government has identified late diagnosis as a major reason why Britain lags behind other European countries in terms of cancer survival rates. The disease killed 153,491 Britons in 2005, although death rates are falling."

You can reduce your risk of developng most cancers by avoiding salt and salty food.